Originally Posted by
fransknorge
If one of my team members did that, there would be a discussion, no tea no biscuits. The employer pays a premium so the employee arrive fresh and ready to work.
And OP has left enough details in the thread to be identified if one of his supervisor is reading.
As a business owner with a number of people of flying globally in business class if I found out this happened I would look at the big picture. Is the employee a good contributor, team mate, etc.? If yes I would have a chat with the person and acknowledge what he did was a very nice gesture on a personal level, but the reason the company spends so much is the the health and safety of the employee as well as performance on the road. We all move on, but should not happen again.
I have travelled constantly (bar covid) for 25 years and I know what impact this takes on the employee, but more on the family as the person hops on a plane yet again. Flyertalk glorifies air travel but the amount of things I have missed over the years are not coming back. It is a tough life.
Lastly, if my Team Leader (tried to) fire a good employee for this I would immediately ask myself if this is the culture throughout the company, or whether is was hopefully isolated. The next chat would be with the Team Leader.